And the rest….

What a cutie!

 
I have to explain this picture – this is my husband panicking because the best man is outside calling him and saying that he couldn’t find the limo.  I love how you can see it in his face.  hahahah. 

And the man who stole every girls heart at the wedding. 

The ceremony….

Paebaek (Tea Ceremony)

I love this picture.  Look how much he’s concentrating on sticking on the dots.

Just the two of us….

When he first saw me….

The Crew…

Kissing….

Details…

Ah….the painstaking hours that I spent on making these cones.  It was so worth it!

This last picture is of the branches right next to the alter area.  The florist glued on the orchids individually to the branches. 

Stay tuned for part 3!

 Sorry this is sooooo late!!!  I have been combing through all of my photos to find the ones I wanted to share with the Weddingbee world vs. which ones to send to friends vs. which ones to put in my album.  Phew!  I had no idea that this would be such hard work!  Anyway, here they are!!!

Getting Ready…

The Dress…

And, a closeup of my hair from the back. 

More to come…..

I have a dilemma. 

I don’t really know what I’m going to do with my wedding dress.  I mean, I loved (LOVED!) my dress and yes, there are some sentimental attachments that I have developed in the past few months.  However, am I really going to wear it again?  And is anyone else really going to wear it?  Will my daughter (if I have a daughter) really want to wear my dress?  What about my baby cousin aka my junior bridesmaid?  Will she want to wear it 15 years from now?  I don’t think so. 

So I want to donate it to the Bridal Garden. I mean, its only been worn once, plus its tax deductible!  And it could help a bride who’s on a budget. 

But my husband thinks I should keep it and have it preserved.  I think he’s grown fond of it as well. 

I’m torn.  Do I donate it for a good cause or do I preserve it for sentimental reasons?  Both are very compelling choices.  Help me!  What do I do?

A.  Donate it
B.  Preserve it
C.  Sell it
D.  Other

I’ve seen this question on many boards before, but I never seem to get a good answer. 

There was a guest at our wedding who did not send us a gift.  Not that we expected gifts from everyone, but this particular guest said that the “gifts are on the way” during the wedding.  We have not received anything from this guest.  So now I’m calling the registries and trying to find out if maybe this person sent something and we just never got it.  But, it looks like we’ve received everything that was bought.  So now I’m trying to figure out maybe this person went off-registry?  Or maybe this person sent money?

So, how do I find out if this person sent something and it got lost, or if they accidentally forgot to send something?

What is the right etiquette?  I will thank this person for coming to the wedding, but I would feel horrible if I didn’t thank them for a gift, if there was a gift purchased. 

What do I do?

I am not a picture taker.  In fact, about half the time on our honeymoon, I didn’t even have my camera on me.  Yes, I am horrible!  We ended up with only 2 good pictures of the two of us from the entire honeymoon!  But I will post about it anyway…..

Part 1 – The Ritz Carlton in San Juan, Puerto Rico
 
Complimentary champagne on check-in, and a free bottle of champagne and stawberries on the first night!  And a little gesture by the cleaning staff!

We went to eat at this cute little “Texan” place on our last night there.  Look at the size of those ribs!!!!!

 
I don’t know why that guy is in our picture.

Part 2 – Cap Juluca Resort, Anguilla, British West Indies

We were on our way to Anguilla when I took this picture from our ferry.  You have to go to St. Maarten, go through customs, then get on the ferry or a private boat or plane to get to Anguilla.  Then you go through customs again.  Yes, it is a process.  But it was worth it.

Just look at the beach at Cap Juluca.  This resort was soooooooo worth the money.  I highly highly highly! recommend it.  You have your own beach chairs depending on which villa you are staying in, they bring you sorbet at 3pm every day on the beach.  They bring you ice cold towels during around noon.  Each villa beach area has their own attendant who takes care of your towel needs, watches your stuff, orders you food and brings it to you, etc.  Almost all water activities are included, so we even got to go sailing!

Breakfast is complimentary every morning, either on your private patio (ours above), or at a resort restaurant.  This is a good thing because breakfast costs easily over $50 for two!

These are some of the other amenitites.  You get your own hammock, a giant two person bath tub, a mini fridge and a private walkway to the beach.  Yes, the beach was literally 50 feet from my room.  And a note about the mini-fridge:  its fully stocked with beer, soda, water, etc.  Everything is free, although only the water is restocked everyday.  They also give you TWO bottles of free rum!! 

We had such a wonderful time, and it was so relaxing.  We loved Cap Juluca so much that we’re definitely going back in the future. 

I had so much help in planning my wedding, but to tell you the truth, you have no idea how your day is going to turn out.  Sure, a few minor details were missed.  And of course, I would change some things, in retrospect.  But I know there were more than a few things that I did right.  This is where talking to other brides, and going to other weddings really helped.

1.  I scheduled in buffer time throughout the entire day.
Starting the Friday before my wedding, the traffic was unbelievable.  I was late to everything, and everything took SO much longer than expected.  So it was a good thing that I had put in about 30 minutes of buffer time in between everything.  I scheduled hair from 9am to 12pm, even though I thought we’d be done by 11am.  We were done at 11:30.  Makeup was scheduled from 12 to 2pm, but because we ended hair early, we had enough time for the makeup for me and the bridesmaids. 

2.  I didn’t travel in packs.
I think I had the idea that I would be with my bridesmaids all day.  We’d all do our hair together, then all go for makeup, then all go to dress, etc.  However, I decided the week of the wedding that I would have 1 bridesmaid finish her hair and then go to the hotel for makeup early.  We had to switch rooms at noon (don’t ask – long story).  Either way, we got 2 bridesmaid makesups done before noon.  Then the rest of us got ready while the last bridesmaid was getting her makeup done.

3.  I picked great vendors.
I know this is sometimes hard to tell unless you’ve tried their service, but I went mostly on my gut instinct.  Did I screw up on the DJ?  Yes, but otherwise, every single vendor was amazing.  I picked my photographer because he had done the videography for my MOH’s wedding the prior year.  Plus, he is now friends with my MOH.  So I trusted him.  I picked my officiant because I had seen him marry another couple on one of the video samples that I saw.  I visited many, many venues and spoke with even more places before seeing Twenty Four Fifth.  I loved the space, and the coordinator was extremely professional.  You gotta love that!  Based on her recommendation, I picked a florist.  If I ever ran into a rude customer service agent at any vendor, I wrote them off very quickly and moved onto the next vendor. 

4.  I put great bridal party/friends in charge.
I cannot tell you how important this is.  I asked Mrs. Bee to coordinate my rehearsal because I didn’t want to do it myself.  I’m sure the venue would have helped, but Mrs. Bee knew me and knew my family.  She did an absolutely amazing job, and took on even more than she should have because she’s my friend.  She was there to help out starting at noon.  The Best Man was so reliable.  My MOH and bridesmaids were amazing.  The reason I mention this is, your MOH and Best Man are probably your closest friends or relatives.  However, maybe they are not the most reliable people in the world (mine rocked).  If they are not, then hand off some of the major responsibilities to someone you know and trust.  As much as it bothers me to say this, some people are not trustworthy, no matter how great of a friend they have been in the past.  Its a hard decision, but I think it really makes a difference in your day. 

5.  I was not afraid to call, re-call, check and double check with my vendors.
I started getting back in touch with my vendors about 4 to 6 weeks before the wedding.  Anytime I had a question, I would shoot an email.  In the last month of emails, I always reminded them about the little things they promised to do – such as remembering to say “you may kiss the bride”, or that the cake should be white, or that they promised a discount.  Do not be afraid to do this!  You don’t have to be mean or whining or feel like a nag – just be incredibly professional and remember that you and the vendors have a business relationship.  Yes, its your wedding and its personal, but for them, it is business.  Treat it like a business relationship, and they will respond to it.

6.  I was not afraid to call, re-call, check and double check my guest list.
Yes, I called my guests who had not responded by October 1st (6 weeks before the wedding).  I called them on the phone and asked if they planned on attending.  Then if I had any doubts about their answers, I called again two weeks later.  I kept calling until I had a definite yes/no from everyone.  The only two people who did not show up (out of 90) were one of my mom’s friends (which my mom didn’t tell me about) and one of my friend’s dates.  That’s a mere 2% of the final guest list who did not show.  I say that’s pretty darn good.

7.  I didn’t freak out too much during the wedding day.
At least I don’t think I did.  I was really worried about being a bridezilla.  Pretty much throughout the whole planning process, I kept my cool.  But your emotions are running high and the stress level is high, and its easy to let your emotions take over.  I know, becuase I let it happen once on my wedding day.  Other than that one incident, I really tried to keep my cool.  Like when Mrs. Bee said no one had seen the officiant, I didn’t freak out that much.  Instead, my first thought was “we have a judge on the guest list; if it comes down to it, he can marry us.”

8.  I had fun!!!!
I kept my thoughts on what I had to do next, in order for me to relax and have fun.  I didn’t think about everything I had to do that day, but only on what I had to do next.  For example, my heart starting beating like crazy when the bridal party started to walk down the aisle.  But my thought was, lets just get to the end of the aisle.  Then once I got there, all I could think about was, “when do I say my vows?”  After that, all I wanted to do was get to the kissing part (which is probably why Mrs. Bee says I shared a long kiss with the husband – but no tongue!!)  Then I just wanted to finish my first dance!  After that, it was all easy!

Every single person I’ve talked to said that they had SO much fun at my wedding.  Parents and family on both sides were impressed by how great the wedding was.  For all you brides planning and agonizing over details, please remember that at the end of the day, if something minor goes wrong, you’ll be the only one to notice it.  Everyone else will just remember the vows, food, drinks and the dancing!